Ascension is a difficulty ladder, like in Slay the Spire. Your first win over the deck IV guardian opens level 1; a win on level k opens level k+1. Modifiers stack: level 5 applies levels 1–5. Creatures hit harder, the warehouse costs more, rooms hold more creatures, captures fail more often, wounds heal worse, experience comes slower; guardians call their pack, leaders bring an escort, the deck IV guardian is tougher. Level 0 is the game as it is.

The Overseer's challenge is different: you pick its conditions yourself for rating and glitch points, while ascension is a permanent ladder. You can take both.

Run conditions are one or two rules for the whole run, each with a plus and a minus: Trappers capture more often but beasts in the crowd eat double, Loud Voice gives an extra order but rooms hold more creatures. They are rolled from a seed; Reroll rolls again. The daily trial has the same conditions for everyone.

Endless descent: after a win, the summary screen has a button. The crowd goes deeper: deck V, VI… Creatures get 15% tougher and hit 8% harder per deck of depth, and there are more of them; the guardian is the Core Guardian, the Backup Core or the Abyss, angrier each time. Guardians pay tokens. At every fork you can leave the station. Your record is the deepest deck, shown in the archive.

Cycles and laws. Three decks make a cycle. Before each new cycle the Overseer offers a deal: a law, a choice of two: armored creatures, fury, horde, rot, darkness… Laws stack until the descent ends; each one makes guardians pay more depth marks and raises the score by 10%.

Elites and guardians. Some creatures are elites with a prefix: fiery, steel; from the second cycle swift and vampire; from the third explosive and hard-to-kill; from the fourth rotting and ghostly. Leaders are always elite. From the second deck of the descent, creatures of another sector join the pack. Descent guardians mutate: plating, spikes, fury, brood, regrowth, acid, more of them the deeper you go.

Depth rooms: the Overseer's vault (three items to choose from), the rift (every creature is elite, a bigger reward) and encounters: an echo of an earlier crowd, a forge, a broken law, a cache.

Depth marks come from descent guardians, descent achievements and bestiary discoveries. Spend them in the archive on descent gear: supplies, fork infirmary, depth map, law selection, guardian spoils, tempering. The record table is there too. Depth unlocks depth items (they drop in regular runs as well) and the Deepdelver leader.